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Thousands of Homes Destroyed as New Wildfires Burn; California Deploys Thousands of Firefighters to Battle Wildfires; Soon, Funeral Service for President Jimmy Carter. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 09, 2025 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking now, a simply devastating night turns into an uncertain morning. The most destructive fires Los Angeles has ever seen. Thousands of homes and buildings destroyed. In some areas, it could get worse.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And as people flee their homes, President- elect Trump is on the attack, blaming everyone from the California governor to President Biden for the fire damage.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And President Jimmy Carter laid to rest. The state funeral of the 39th president begins this morning in Washington, D.C., bringing together all five living presidents to honor one of their own. I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right. The breaking news, the worst fires in Los Angeles ever, full stop. Harrowing night is making way for a treacherous morning with new urgent warnings and explosive conditions. At least five fires are raging at this moment, the worst of them still 0 percent contained. At least five people have died, but that number almost certainly will rise. More than 28,000 acres have burned.

New this morning, 1,000 buildings, homes, structures have been destroyed in that fire near Pasadena, and the fire on the coast in Pacific Palisades, another 100,000 homes and businesses are also gone. Look at these scenes. You can see satellite imagery showing how widespread the blazes have been. Air quality is now at a hazardous level six out of six, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes. Some just now seeing what is left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our nest egg. This is where we moved in when we got married. This is where our son was born. This was our house and this was what we worked for. This was what we were going to used to retire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't seem real in my neighborhood that I grew up in and the rec center used to play basketball at, everything is just gone. And I just want to wake up from this bad dream and it doesn't seem real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. Let's get right to CNN's Julia Vargas Jones, who's in those fires that have been raging near Pasadena. Give us a sense of what you're seeing this morning.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, that desperation that we just heard from residents. Look, this is the reality that they're facing. So many people are coming home to check on their homes, and this is what we find. This is what they will find, their homes engulfed by flames, this fire still burning here in Altadena across here, the neighbor. There's a gas line that's just been fueling this fire and around all of this, the brush that has fueled it with these winds that -- 100-mile-an-hour winds that have just burned through all of this, bringing this hurricane of fire through these residential neighborhoods, street after street, we'll be seeing on both sides, fire jumping over streets, jumping over highways and, you know, catching on these palm trees on this brush that about two years ago with a record water we got in California has raised this to the point that now is just the perfect fuel for these kinds of fires.

At this point, here in Altadena, firefighters are still working tirelessly to put out small focuses like this one. They have been working 36, 48 hours, and there are firefighters coming from Arizona, from Oregon National Guard on its way to help with this as well. Thankfully, the wind has stopped down for most of yesterday, and now there is aerial help, so there is some possibility of fighting this from the skies as much as from the ground. But we are hearing that it's supposed to pick back up.

Now, I'm not sure what this does to people like the folks that we heard from, but here in Altadena, we've seen the resilience and the willingness to help their neighbors, folks whose houses made it, John, just being still here, taking garden hoses, buckets, doing whatever they could to save their neighbors' homes.

[07:05:02]

Take a listen to one of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know who all these guys are that are helping to save my house right now, but I am very grateful to them.

REPORTER: Is that what they're doing? Is that what -- can I?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I was here an hour ago. I thought for sure when I came back now, it would be gone.

So, I'm happy that it's standing right now, but I don't have a lot of hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Everyone that we've seen, every street that we've gone down, we've seen people trying to do their best on it. And it's times like these that bring communities together that it -- in the middle of all of this desperation, I cannot imagine what it's like for this woman to come in and look at her house on fire, but strangers helping her.

BERMAN: Julia Vargas Jones near those fires in Pasadena, raging all night, you and your team, please stay safe .Sara?

SIDNER: We certainly have never seen anything like this in Los Angeles County. As residents watch and wait, others are coming to grips with the reality that their homes are gone, as you heard there.

CNN's Anderson Cooper takes us through another Altadena neighborhood now mostly lost to the flames.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: There just are not enough fire crews able to deal with all the blazes that are going on. This house is completely gone. The next house next door, it looks like the roof has just caught fire over there. The fire is also spread across the street. There are at least three houses ablaze. And then the fire in just in the last two minutes or three minutes has spread to that vehicle, which was parked out front. There was a slight explosion as some of the gas went up. A fire truck passed by here, there's another larger blaze up there, which they are going to try to deal with right now.

We're at Harriet in Altadena, Harriet Street. The fire has spread now to this house, which is really now engulfed in flames. But, I mean, it's just surreal. I mean, look at this -- even a small thing like this tree is burning from the inside.

So on this block, I count one, two -- I mean, all the houses on this side are gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: Just gone. It's really hard to believe. And you see that? Making -- reinforcing that wind speeds have been the whole ballgame with this disaster, peaking at 100 miles per hour in terms of wind gusts. Winds today gusting at a lower rate, thankfully, but they're not out of the clear.

Let's bring a Meteorologist Derek Van Dam on this one. Derek, how are the conditions this hour and heading into this morning?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right. Kate, I was relieved this morning to see some of the video coming out of the area where helicopters and the aircraft helping fight the fire from the air were able to actually fly. That's the main difference this morning compared to yesterday at this time when they were not able to fly because the winds were too erratic and too strong. So, there was some relaxation in the Santa Ana winds, but we do anticipate that to pick up in intensity through the course of the day.

So, we are monitoring five active large wildfires. We don't have enough time to talk about every single fire, but we know that the Eden fire, we saw it with Anderson just a moment ago, charring thousands of acres. But let's focus in on Pacific Palisades, the Palisades fire. Here's the Santa Monica Pier, the famed beach within this region, and look at how the fire is encroaching on this densely populated area of western L.A. into Santa Monica.

The wind direction is so critical here still coming out of the northeast. It picks up through the afternoon. Ridge top winds down to the valley floors could reach 60 miles per hour. That's tropical storm force conditions. That's why we still have critical fire dangers and red flag warnings in place for much of the region. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also leading to, you know, a lot of air quality issues as well and warnings there. Thank you so much for putting it all together for us, Derek. We're going to stick close to it, obviously with you throughout the morning. Thank you. John?

BERMAN: All right. A curfew is now in effect from sunrise to sunset in Santa Monica, as these fires continue to rage, this hellscape waiting for people for when they wake up this morning.

Quote, we are open to a dialogue, the new message from Danish officials amid reports of growing fear that President-elect Trump is serious about acquiring Greenland.

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[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: More breaking news overnight in terms of those devastating wildfires, more than 2,000 structures have burned to the ground from the Palisades and Eaton fires in Southern California. Those are two of the five fires currently burning with little containment.

CNN National Correspondent Nick Watt has been on the scene in Pacific Palisades, which, as we know, is one of the place's hardest hit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The last fire I covered here in the Palisades, which at the time we thought was a big deal, that was a thousand acres. This is 16,000 acres.

Listen, we knew this was going to be bad. Everybody knew this was going to be bad with the Santa Ana winds, with the drought we've had for so long, no real rain since the spring, when those winds were forecast, we knew it was going to be bad.

[07:15:06]

Everyone got ready, but they were prepared for maybe one or two fires. As you say now, there were like six fires. How do you prioritize? How do you fight those flames? It is terrible.

But the thing is all these friends who are asking me to go and look at their houses, you know, when I went into this one neighborhood earlier today and I was looking for their house, when I saw their neighborhood, I thought to myself, you know what, for their sake, I almost hope their house is gone because, you know, what would life be like living in the one house that's left in an ashy wasteland and also when you're downtown, when your community is gone.

The two grocery stores in the Palisades here, huge grocery stores, gone, the theater, gone, the library, gone, Palisades High School was on fire when I drove past it earlier. Other schools are gone, offices. People's lives, even if their homes are still okay, their lives, their community. You know, a friend of mine says she's lived here for 35 years. She knows dozens of people who've lost their homes. Her office is burned down. There's not much left.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Our thanks to Nick Watt, who's doing incredible reporting there. The Palisades fire is the most destructive ever to hit Los Angeles County, exploding to more than 17,000 acres and it is 0 percent contained at this hour.

Joining us now is Janet Davis, who lives in one of the hardest hit areas and has not been able to return to her home.

Janet, it's hard to even ask you this. Do you know what has happened to your home yet?

JANET DAVIS, PALISADES FIRE EVACUEE: Yes. I've seen some video footage and it's gone. It's gone.

I don't have access to the area yet.

SIDNER: Your home is gone. You had to see that on video. You weren't able to. Where were you when you all of a sudden had to leave the area and were evacuated?

DAVIS: I didn't have the option of packing. I made an appointment to have my car maintenance and -- for car maintenance. And I driven into Santa Monica that morning and I could not get back to the Palisades. By the time I was returning, there's too much traffic. So, I went -- continued to my daughter's house and I just thought, well, I live on a -- you know, I live on a street with sidewalks. There's a fire extinguisher or a fire hydrant two houses down, so what's the problem? And that was it. So it was just like, wow, you can live in the city and have all this normal city stuff and it doesn't make any difference.

SIDNER: You mentioned the fire hydrants, and, apparently, well, firefighters said they went dry at some point in the Pacific Palisades. What do you think about that?

DAVIS: Yes. It's pretty just -- yes, it's disheartening. It's, you know, unnerving.

SIDNER: You said that you weren't even able to get to your house once this all started. I mean, have you even started thinking about what all you left behind? I mean, what did you have with you? DAVIS: My clothes and my purse and my car. That's it, very little. I spent, we spent yesterday trying to get -- dealing with the online pharmacy to get my medicines -- prescriptions refilled. So, I'm just kind of dealing with one thing at a time, trying to just get by for now. I'm fortunate to have a family member who works in the insurance industry. So, we sat down and figured out what I would do. But, you know, I walked off with no paperwork, nothing, much less a whole house of -- you know, what can I say we built our house pretty much from the ground up and filled it with family furniture and mementos. So, it's hard to realize that, you know, a whole house full of family antiques and things are gone.

SIDNER: A whole lot of memories gone in that house. I'm so, so sorry, Janet, that you're going through this.

What do you need? What kind of help do you and your neighbors need? You left with nothing, basically, but the clothes on your back and your vehicle.

[07:20:01]

DAVIS: Correct. You know, we're going to have to look at -- I'm getting a lot of help from my family. I'm in a very -- you know, financially, I'm in a fortunate situation, but it's just what I understand. I've got one of the first steps is I was told there's a government agency that deals with getting the lots cleared of debris. And so that's probably going to be a first step is to just get the lot cleared and then just keep moving. And so that's all I can do is just treat this as an adventure and see what I can do with it.

SIDNER: That is an incredibly resilient way to think about it, Janet, you know, to treat it as an adventure. But I know that it's really devastating and painful to be looking at these images of your own home gone and the entire community in some cases, including the business district also gone. Life will be very, very different when it's time to return.

Janet, thank you so, so much for joining us this morning.

For more information about how you can help wildfire victims, you can go to cnn.com/impact.

We have never seen anything like this. The apocalyptic scenes in Los Angeles as those deadly wildfires rage over tens of thousands of acres.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Home is family, but this hurts and it hurts seeing the scale of it. I've lived here in the L.A. area my whole life, 32 years. It's never been this bad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And the pain of loss in Washington. We're just hours from now, all five living past and present American presidents will be in the same room as former President Jimmy Carter is laid to rest. The most pressing question who will sit next to whom? We'll take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news. This morning, the Biden administration announced the final military aid package to Ukraine before President Biden leaves office. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this morning in Germany. This $500 million package will include additional missiles for Ukrainian air defense, more ammunition, more air-to-ground munitions, and other equipment to support Ukraine's F-16, the fighter jets.

In just a few hours, the state funeral of former President Jimmy Carter is set to get underway. Public visitation of the late president lying in state at the U.S. Capitol wrapped up this morning. The motorcade will arrive at the Washington National Cathedral shortly where President Biden in all of the nation's living former presidents will be attending.

CNN's Kayla Tausche joins us now. This is always a remarkable image to see all the former and current presidents in one place, Kayla.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. And it hasn't happened since December 2018 when that same group was gathered for the state funeral of former President George H.W. Bush. It's an exclusive club, but it's one among whose relationships have been fraught in recent years with the two elections of Donald Trump seen as controversial among the establishment.

President Biden recently was asked what message President-elect Trump could learn from Jimmy Carter, and he said one word in his answer. He said decency, decency, decency.

We expect that to be a highlight of Biden's own message today as he prepares to deliver a eulogy for his longtime friend of 50 years, Biden was among those helping to convince Carter to run for president when he was serving as Georgia's governor. In turn, Carter endorsed Biden's many Senate runs and even helped raise funds for him in the late 70s. The two counseled each other on politics and life for decades. And Biden recently paid a visit to Plains, Georgia, early on in his presidential term,

Biden will be among just one of the speakers delivering a eulogy. We know that also eulogies prepared by President Gerald Ford and Vice President President Walter Mondale will also be read by their own relatives. Their sons will be delivering those eulogies with President Biden delivering his own at the Washington National Cathedral today.

Now, following the service, Carter will be flown home to Plains, Georgia, his hometown, for a private internment. Around the same time, we had expected President Biden to depart for his final foreign trip to Rome, Italy, where he was expected to meet with Italian leaders, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Pope Francis. That trip has been canceled because of the fires raging in Los Angeles, but it all comes as Biden today will be fomenting the legacy of his longtime friend Jimmy Carter while trying to burnish his own in his final days in office. John?

BERMAN: You bring up a great point, Kayla, which I don't think any other living politician had as close of a relationship with President Carter as an elected official as the current president, Joe Biden. So, it'd be very interesting to hear what he has to say today.

Kayla Tausche at the White House, great to see you. Thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right ahead. More breaking news out of California, thousands of firefighters are desperately trying to contain. Deadly fires raging in Los Angeles County. Here is the problem. The intense winds are about to pick up again. We'll speak with Cal Fire chief about what they're facing this morning.

And President-elect Trump's allies and advisers have a new warning for Danish officials about his desire to snatch up Greenland for the United States.

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[07:30:00]